Hello everyone!
So here I begin my journey with writing this fanfic. I really hope you find it interesting. This will basically be like a pilot episode
Anyway, off to chapter 1!
Sonic.
Sonic the Hedgehog.
A hero. A role model. An idol. An object of admiration for all the fellow Mobians. Someone who they looked up to and who they always counted on to save the day whenever the slightest problem occured. Someone who always seemed so cool and chill about everything. The powerful and speedy Blue Blur.
In the eyes of Mobians he was always seen as a supernatural heroic being. That reputation wasn't foreign in the world of humans, either. Whether it was Dr Eggman, the Zeti, metal Sonic or litteraly any other kind of threat, he was there, always, untouchable, unstoppable.
That's who he is. That's his whole being.
Or is it...?
Anyone could have told you that. Everyone thinks that they know Sonic. And everything about him. There's actually not much to know, is it? He moves at the speed of sound, flashes to the ones in need, saves the day and then spindashes back to another adventure, running towards the setting sun. Uncatchable. Never gonna stop or stay for too long in one place.
Idyllic kind of life, you would say.
Also, he loves chilli dogs.
But what makes a person's personality, actually?
What is Sonic like?
And does anyone know, actually?
Even with his closest friends, he still had more of a formal than a friendly relationship. The story would always go like, "something bad happen, fix it together, and done". Most of them were often too exhausted from the battles to hang out in any kind of way in their free time, just chilling, chatting, hanging out like any other normal Mobians. But they weren't. They were different. Most of them chose to be different by joining Sonic. So it wasn't that easy.
Well, there were still some friend groups within the great Sonic team that would always stick together. Like the Chaotix, or Amy and Cream. And then, there were also couples. Like Knuckles and Rouge, or Silver and Blaze.
Sonic, on the other hand, never felt such of a need to randomly call someone of them and be like "Hey, wanna go grab a cup coffee or something, so we go talk about life and stuff."
And even thought half of Mobius was crushing on him, especially Amy Rose, he had absolutely zero interest in romance. A relationship would bring extra responsibilities. Problems. Something that would make him slow down.
Something holding him back.
He doesn't want to be held back.
Sonic's life was about helping others, not making bonds with them.
It was about having a title of a hero, not having a title of anyone's friend. Or a boyfriend.
And technically, he didn't need anyone. And no one needed him. Not in any other way than just being there to beat up the bad guys.
Well, that was the original, solid thought.
Until that thought weakened.
Because something has drastically changed.
It was at the time Sonic was forced to go on a mission to the West Side Island, because he was given some information about Eggman's new actions there. He didn't know what it was, and he didn't care. He would handle it all anyway. It was probably just one of the random provocations. Typical Egghead.
Sonic has barely made Amy stay at home. He has eventually managed to discourage her in her attempts to make Sonic take her with him. She wanted to help, but Sonic was already fed up from her love outpourings. Battling with Eggman right now seemed more like a vacation than anything.
So he left alone.
He took his plane, the Tornado.
There was quite a story behind that biplane, actually.
It used to belong to Dustin Highsky, better known as Dustin the canine.
He was basically a national hero. Maybe even a global hero. Promoter of peace and harmony. He was best known for trying to stop all the battles that have been led for the Chaos emeralds.
He was best known for his quote "Never risk peace in exchange of power. Peace serves to all of us, power tears us apart."
If anyone ever got injured in any kind of a battle, he would always be nearby with his biplane. He would land only to transport the wounded to the safe place so they could get the proper care. He was saving lives.
He was a hero.
But he knew who he was.
He had a family. A wife, Darcy, and two kids. He had enemies, but a lot more friends. Friends with whom he was very close.
He was certainly someone.
Then, a year ago, he had an accident.
Someone was sending calls for help from an unknown location, somewhere near the Cocoa Island. No one knew what happened. But Dustin wasn't hesitating. He had to help, althought a giant thunderstorm was predicted that day. He flew away with his Tornado searching for the signal.
He got in the storm, which by then has became very strong.
He dissapeared. There was a grand search for him, but he was never found. He never made it to the Cocoa Island. The only thing that was found was his biplane, and all of his things that he kept in it were simply gone, sunk somewhere in the ocean. The biplane was in a pretty bad condition, but when the whole Mobius heard for what happened to their Peace Warrior, they all agreed that the biplane should be brought back to his family, and stay as a memory of a legend, no matter how bad it was.
And so it was. The plane was brought back in pieces, but it has eventually been renewed, and many consider that it has looked better than ever.
Sonic remembers the day he came to some sort of a funeral, except it wasn't a funeral because there was no body to burry. It was just some sort of a ceremony to his honour, and thousands on Mobians were there. Sonic thought that comming there would be the slightest he could do as a newborn hero, considering the fact that Dustin used to be his idol as well. But from some reason, althought in those times he already had a reputation of a new mobian hero, once when he started with all the heroism, Sonic had a feeling he will never leave as big of a mark as Dustin did.
He was well welcomed. He remembers seeing Dustin's wife with the kids. She cried. Hopeless. Desperate.
And then one of the pups gasped in admiration, pulling her sleeves.
"Mom! Look! It's him!" - the boy was thrilled.
Darcy the canine raised her head and glanced at Sonic with her still red and teary eyes. Sonic was haunted by the look in her eyes for years, that he remembered so clearly. It was at that moment that a thing has occured on his mind.
I'll never do it, he thought. I will never connect to anyone. Never gonna let someone in my life, no, not in that way. I couldn't possibly... I'm not that kind of a guy. And connecting to others... hurts. Because they go away, and you go away, and then everyone is unhappy. I could never do that to seomeone, and I will never let someone do that to me...
At least not again.
"Sonic the hedgehog" - the expression on the canine's face has changed.
"Mrs Highsky, I'm here to - "
"You are also a Peace Warrior yourself, in a way."
"Well... yep, kinda. I guess..."
"Please take it" she cut him off.
"What?"
"The biplane. The Tornado. Dustin's plane. Take it."
Sonic remained quiet for a while. "Ma'am, I can't - "
"He would be really dissapointed if it stayed here. He would want it... The Tornado... To fly high again. It's a kind of a plane that I just can't leave indifferently in my garage forever. You are a hero, just like he used to be. You're gonna need it. I'm asking you to take it. Please."
Sonic was so confused by this request, he didn't even get to realize how to reject it properly.
The next thing he knew, he was heading back home with a biplane. His biplane now, he assumed. From some reason, he was still pretty pissed by the fact he did absolutely nothing to deserve it.
That was a year before this mission he was heading towards now, on the West Side Island. He hasn't seen Mrs Highsky ever since.
But now when he thinks about it, what she did, the random gesture she gave by just giving him the biplane, was the key turning point in his whole life - it has completely changed the direction his life was going in. It's almost like she predicted... Almost like she knew exactly what will happen.
"What do you mean, you can't help me!?" - Sonic asked angrily. He was furious. This day couldn't get any worse.
"Well, I mean, I'm sorry, Mr Sonic, but I can't help you. Not for the amount of money you are offering me."
"I have almost nothing. Are you serious?"
"I said I'm sorry. And unfortunately, I doubt that you will find any kind of a mechanic over here that will do this kind of work for you for free without charging you. Sorry, but we must stick to some kind of an order here. I have skills needed to repair your plane, and you might be a hero, but that's not the reason for me to get the work done for free. Other customers would get rebellious if they found out, y' know. Promoting equality among all Mobians regardless of their title in society, if you know what i mean. Look, I hate this as much as you do. But I can't fix your plane. I could, but won't."
It was Wyatt the squirrel. He was the only passerby on the coast of the West Side Island when the Tornado has suddenly crashed. That was an hour ago. Since then, Sonic has ran across the entire island, thinking how he will fix the plane later (completely ignoring the fact he knew nothing about it) and right now the priority was to search for Eggman, just so he could find out that Eggman wasn't even there. It was a false alarm, and the evil doctor probably activated it himself. Sonic has realized: it must have been the part of the plan so Eggman could attack South Island, or Angel Island, while Sonic wasn't around. He couldn't believe it. He left Amy completely unprotected there. Besides, doctor Eggman has probably found a new chaos emerald there somewhere if he wanted Sonic out of the picture so soon.
Sonic's biggest concern was that Amy didn't call him for any sort of a warning or a call for help. That could mean two things: either Amy wasn't endangered, or she was indeed so endangered that she didn't even have enough time to call him. He cleared the thought out of his mind, trying to convince himself he's not that worried about Amy, at least not as much as an evil doctor having his hands on any of the chaos emeralds.
He was outraged by the fact he has been tricked. And now he wasn't even able to fly back rapidly, because the plane suddenly had a breakdownfor an unknown reason. He was already getting really irritable.
He has stayed in one place for too long.
It was one of the things he hated the most.
He needed to get back home.
He needed to get out of here. NOW.
By the time Wyatt left, Sonic already considered a very stupid idea. Running. Starting to run. To run and to not stop until he gets home. Because that is something that would at least be easy for him.
But he couldn't. Because the only thing in front of him was the ocean. The ocean and its dangerous depths.
He knew he is fast enough to run on water, but if he starts now, he risks getting tired on the halfway or collapsing in the middle of an open sea if a slightly bigger wave gets in his way, and then there would be no one to help him.
He would drown, and no one would even know. It was the only thing that he was so afraid of.
Besides, it got windy in the meantime. And the grey clouds in the sky approaching didn't seem to cooperate with this thought either.
He screamed in agony and desperation and started running towards the cente of the island. It took him less than 10 seconds to get there. Then he continued till the opposite coast of the island. From that spot he continued down the beach and began to make a bunch of circles and laps around the whole island. Not knowing what to do, his mind lost, he didn't count the laps or think about anything.
He just ran.
It was an act of lostness, but it felt good. Almost comforting.
What is he gonna do? Better not to think about it.
Just keep running.
After five hours of endless running in circles, he finally gave up, realising that all this won't help him or get him anywhere.
He decided to go back to the Tornado and see what he can do. Which was pretty much nothing, he already knew that.
A thought came to his mind. A sudden feeling. A blast of shame, because the plane he has crashed wasn't technically even his.
He has crashed the plane of his hero.
He wasn't even capable to take care of a plane.
Damn.
The plane was a gift, and crashing it now felt like he has broken an important promise.
A betrayal.
He has slowed down, his head feeling heavier captured by this thought.
He has walked to the Tornado, staring at the sand below the whole time and not raising his view.
Then he has raised it towards the crashed plane.
The crashed plane?
It didn't look crashed.
Sonic couldn't help it but to stare with his mouth wide open.
The broken propeller the plane had last time he has seen it was now in the place. The plane was cleaned from the dust. And another thing. It wasn't even the right colour. Tornado used to be blue, but all the scrapes from the damage it got in the crash were either gone... or covered with the plane's new, beautiful, shiny red colour.
Sonic for a moment thought that this wasn't even his plane.
But on its right side, the well-known caption was still there: Sonic.
Someone during his absence has found his plane and completely renewed it. The paint seemed like it has already dried a long time ago. Someone has fixed the propeller and polished the plane voluntary.
And that certain someone was still here.
Sonic noticed that Someone was bent over the plane's opened engine. And Someone was making sounds while using tools from Sonic's tool box he brought on the journey (again, not knowing how to use any of them) on the plane's engine.
Sonic didn't know how to react. "Hey!" he yelled, althought he didn't mean it to be that loud. "What are you..."
Someone stopped with whatever he was doing, released a loud yelp, dropped a tool box - this action has caused the tools to clink and fly apart all over the place - and jumped in the air, throwing himself six feet away backwards from the plane. As soon as he hit the ground with a thud, he started shaking his head, searching for something within his eyesight, until his eyes layed on Sonic and gave him the most terrified look he has ever seen.
Sonic has gasped in surprise. It was just a little kid. A little fox. An orange - yellow fur, big and terrified sky blue eyes. He hasn't even grew fangs yet. He had three braids on the top of his head, lightly crossing the left side of his face. He couldn't have been older than three.
And he also had...
Two tails.
Two tails, peeking from his back while he was still lying on the ground, breathing heavily from shock. He looked traumatized. He looked so scared and sad.
It was already too late when Sonic caught himself staring at his two tails. The kid noticed it and seemed to be even more horrified by that. He has protectively grabbed his tails and embraced his whole body with them. He started sobbing, then loudly blubbering.
"Hey, no - it's okay! I won't... I won't hurt ya! - Sonic explained and tried to approach, but as he did it, the kid let out a weak scream and ran away in the woods.
"Wait! Kid!" - Sonic reached out in his direction, but the kid already ran away.
That probably wasn't the best way to handle this situation.
Sonic felt terrible. But in the next time he was enlightened with another moment of realization.
That kid is so young. That kid is barely three. And that kid has came here, saw the plane, and FIXED it.
Hold up...
Sonic sat in the Tornado rapidly to start the engine and see if it works.
And it worked.
So, a kid came here, painted his plane, then FIXED it. The plane was now WORKING. It was like nothing ever happened to it.
A KID fixed the propeller and the biplane's engine, while he was gone. A KID was using tools that Sonic has never even touched, right in front of his eyes.
Sonic couldn't help but to be amazed, it left such an impact on him.
The kid, whoever he was, he came here and did THIS. The plane was now WORKING. Sonic could go HOME.
Except...
Something has attracted Sonic's attention. On the pilot's seat, a book has been left. It wasn't his book, so he assumed, it could have been something that a kid has left behind? Maybe?
He picked it up. He looked at the title and froze.
The Art of Repair, by Dustin Highsky. Dustin the canine.
It was bookmarked on one page. Sonic opened it. A chapter about repairing the engines of aeroplanes. He couldn't help but to gasp.
He went back to page 1. On this page, something was written by pencil, with the crooked, messy, but recogniseable letters.
It said: Miles Prower.
Nothing more.
"It's that kid" Sonic said out loud.
A lightning in the distance has lit up the sky for a milisecond. Silent, distant thunder. A tiny droplet fell on Sonic's forehead.
Sonic has looked up to the woods once again.
Go after him, a voice in his head said.
"No", Sonic said to himself, but as soon as he did, he got up.
He glanced at the woods.
Just do it, the voice said again.
You have to. Trust me. Go. Find him. Now.
And he started running.
He didn't even know how is he gonna find the kit. But he knew, from some stupid reason, he wanted to.
I'm just bringing him back the book, he reminded himself in almost a comforting tone. The kid with mechanical skills like that shouldn't be deprived of his book.
He had no idea where to search. He got to the city centre. He ran all over the place, people giving him looks. He didn't care. He never cared, actually. He was used to it.
Eventually, he got tired of the stares. He moved around the corner and got into an empty space between two old buildings. Seemed like a fair place to hide from everyone when even you don't know where are you even going.
He was expecting just some filled dumpsters and no one to bother. But...
He was wrong.
At the edge of a dead end, there was a gang of mobian teenagers, circling something like vultures. Not knowing why, Sonic hid behind the nearest dumpster after noticing them.
He heard parts of the conversation.
"Gimme that piece of ****, you drooling freak" - a harsh voice was heard.
"What is this? Some sort of a toy you built outta trash? Oh, well look, it is trash." - a malicious giggle was heard.
"Just like himself" - another voice confirmed. "He is trash himself."
A silent groan.
"There, there" - another deep voice heard - "please don't make any kind of sounds. We might have to shut you up."
A yelp.
Sound of throwing something on the ground.
"Say goodbye to your f***ing plaything, probably the only friend you ever had" - said the first voice as the other two laughed. A stomp. Something crashing into pieces.
"NO!" - a weak raspy voice cried. "Please stop!"
"You're never gonna learn, are you?" - the mean, merciless voice continued. "Y'know what? I feel like having fun today. Let's end this once and for all."
"NO! PLEASE! I-"
"SHUT UP!" slapping sound
Crying. More crying.
"Grab him, this shouldn't take long" - the leader said.
Sounds of pushing. They pressed someone on a brick wall, in the corner.
Then one of the teenagers said the sentence that made Sonic's heart stop.
"What do we do with the extra tail?"
Sonic barely held back gasping. He made a small head movement, but that was enough for him to see from the edge of the dumpster that teenagers have circled HIM.
A mean, short, almost joyfull hiss throught the teeth was the next thing he heard: "I have some pretty good garden shears."
NO, Sonic's inner voice has screamed, NO!
The next thing he knew, he jumped out of his hiding place.
"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" he yelled.
The teenagers looked back, and in the matter of seconds they were all escaping, jumping above the brickwall to the other side of the street using dumpsters as stairs. They were gone.
Sonic ran over to Miles who was still in the corner. "Hey, buddy. You okay?
But this sudden move was obviously too much for a traumatised kid. He completely stopped breathing, his tails still widened from the pressure of the bullies, and then he just collapsed right in front of Sonic's eyes.
Sonic reached for the fainted kid as quickly as he could to pick him up. Next thing he knew, he was holding him in his bosom. The kid breathed heavily, and that's when Sonic got terrified.
He had so many fresh wounds, grazes, bruises, and he was seemingly so undernourished that his ribs were too clearly seen on his chest. He was dirty and one of his tails slouched at a strange angle. Sonic probably didn't notice it, but this was probably how the kid looked even the first time he saw him by the Tornado, only he was more distant back then so it was harder to notice.
He wasn't as close as he was right now.
Sonic hugged him and started crying, knowing that the kid must have been in this condition for a long time already. Too long. Knowing what kind of injustice has happened to this kit, Sonic couldn't help it but to act like this.
The rain was now already showering. The thunder was getting louder.
It was the first out of two times Tails has ever seen Sonic cry.
Sonic has made a very dumb decision.
He knew it.
But he couldn't help it.
With the kid still blacked out on his knees, Sonic was flying the plane back home.
Back to Amy.
He knew and realized what the bullies wanted to do to Miles. He knew that while he was searching for the hospital in the town to put the kid in. He knew that while people all over the city were giving the two of them looks as he ran around like a maniac. And then he realized.
If he leaves this kid in any kind of a hospital or at the West Side Island at all, he is still eventually going to die among these people. Those cruel people. In that cruel world.
He knew that the kit didn't have anyone. That kind of a condition was already way too familiar for him to think and hope that the kid did have someone. He couldn't have the life of a wonder that fixed his plane on the soul while heading back home. So he made the stupidest, but the most life - changing decision ever.
He will bring the kid home, to his island. South Island.
He had no idea what was he going to do. He had no idea was he even going to survive the trip. But he knew that Amy will probably know what to do. Amy will help him.
So now he was flying throught the storm with an unknown kid, like the biggest fool in the world.
Every time the thunder roared and the lightning stroke the sky, the kid would moan and pull himself closer, place himself tighter in Sonic's hug.
"I know, kid. I don't like that either." - Sonic said.
He looked at the kid with compassion.
That little miracle, a two-tailed one, who fixed the plane.
A wonderful two-tailed miracle.
Back then it probably wasn't not even in Sonic's wildest dreams that in just a couple of years, this kid is going to be a fricking genius. This kid won't need a book to repair stuff anymore, this kid who only learned how to read and write from that one book, while reading it and absorbing it all in like a sponge behind the dumpster. This kid will be a hero. This kid will be his best friend. His little brother.
A pilot.
This kid will fly the Tornado.
This kid is going to crash the Tornado a lot more times than Sonic ever will.
And Sonic isn't gonna to mind it a single time.
And five years later, in the present day, Tails was flying the Tornado, with the shiny bright-blue sea below and Sonic on the right wing and Amy on the back seat.
Smiling while raising his goggles above his braids, Tails claimed: "Get ready, guys. We are arriving at Christmas Island very soon."
This was quite a chapter...! I'm so sorry, I didn't plan for it to be this long. But I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, please share. It would mean so much. And NEXT TIME we will see how the whole real plot of this has started... On the Christmas Island.